Breitbart’s Big $100k

The late Andrew Breitbart founded Big Government, Big Hollywood, and Big Journalism. Andrew doggedly pursued the story behind the allegations of Reps. Andre Carson, John Lewis, Emanuel Cleaver and James Clyburn that Tea Party protesters abused black congressmen with racial epithets while demonstrating against Obamacare on Capitol Hill on March 20, 2010. The story was reported as fact by news organizations including Fox News and McClatchy News, but Breitbart called (pardon me) bullshit and exposed it as a concoction of the congressmen who peddled it.

One can say this with something approaching metaphysical certainty because of the utter lack of evidence supporting it under circumstances where there would have been such evidence had it happened as alleged. The key to the case was Breitbart’s offer of a $100,000 reward to anyone producing video of the epithets being shouted. There were no takers because it didn’t happen.

One can reasonably conclude that the congressmen’s story was a fabrication intended to defame the Tea Party movement and distract attention from the resistance to Obamacare. Not a single video corroborated it although many videos were shot that day, and despite Breitbart’s offer of a $100,000 reward to anyone producing a video that corroborated it. No independent journalist or other eyewitness stepped forward to vouch for the congressmen’s story.

In her column “Sore winners” (the Democrats, of course), the great Mona Charen recalls Andrew’s reward, but misstates the amount as $10,000. It is the only error in Mona’s otherwise terrific column, but I think it is an error worth correcting. It goes to the heart of a story that exposes the Democrats’ eternal race-baiting mania.